Pretty much what the title says…I’ve been researching dozens of watches in the sub $1k budget and have found many “popular” watches that have super positive reviews, but when I go to a store to handle and experience the watch, it’s very underwhelming. It’s gotten to the point now that I’m questioning anyone’s advice on watches in this budget.
For example, many reviewers and people love the Tissot PRX line, but after seeing those in person and holding those pieces, I think they feel cheap and overpriced for what you’re getting. FYI - I’m only interested in automatic watches, so I’m not considering quartz for this discussion.
I’m mainly here to chat about whether others have or are currently experiencing this too or I’m alone in feeling this way? Also, does it get significantly better at $2k, $3k, etc.?
Watches sub $1k that I didn’t like…
- Tissot PRXs
- Seiko SSKs
- Seiko SRPFs
- Orient Kamasu and Mako
- Nezumi Aviera
- Swatches
- Citizen
- Victorinox
Note: I own a couple other watches in this price range, but they are at the tippy top of $1k budget and I wouldn’t say they’re the go-to popular brands, i.e., Mido, Doxa, Hamilton, Jack Mason GMT.
Do you like your hamilton?
Love the Hamilton! Feels and looks great IMO
If you like vintage looking watches, Baltic.
If you like modern looking watches, second hand Formex.
I have purchased a watch from both of them and really like them.
As a third option, I really dig Mido Oceanstar 200C, but haven’t tried one. Swatch group brand, chronometer, day-date complication, 200m diver with a ceramic bezel and engraved dial, crazy good p/q, at least on paper.
Squale
IMO one of the best brands for $1k budget is Certina.
Have a lot of positive experience from their watches. Both quartz and automatic.
I have yet to see any Certinas in person. They are definitely on my list to check out though.
For 200-500, I don’t necessarily feel the need to be blown away. Orient, seiko, hamilton etc may have their issues, but for the price many of them make me pretty happy.
I feel like the 500-1000 range is kind of a no man’s land. A lot of stuff there doesn’t offer much of an upgrade over the cheap stuff, but costs a lot more. I bought a used NTH recently that I love, but a new one is 750, and at that price, it really doesn’t seem to offer much value. And I haven’t seen anything in that price range that I feel much different about.
As you go up the scale, quality does improve, but as with so many things, you’re dealing with diminishing marginal returns. A hydroconquest isn’t 5x as nice as a Kamasu…
Very well said! I’d say crappy bracelets is #1 for most watches under $1k, but they do get better at the upper range from what I’ve seen. I guess if I didn’t care about swapping the metal bracelets to leather or nato, I could go for a couple of those watches
You can get very nice aftermarket bracelets for popular orient and seiko models from strapcode and Long Island watch. I feel like this is where cheap watches really suffer. My NTH at least came in a nice one, as did my Steinhart. But even some of the 500 buck seikos come on junk bracelets. My Steinhart gmt was eye opening. Everything about it was an upgrade from seiko for like 500 bucks
You could check out Zeppelin. They start at about $300 and some models are absolutely gorgeous. Mostly quartz in the lower price range, but some automatics around the 1k range as well. I own two, you can check them out in my post history.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve looked at Zeppelin briefly, but not much
It depends on what you like and what expectations you have. I’ve handled $500 watches that were very impressive and $20,000 watches that were disappointing.
Have you looked into Nodus (sector GMT pacific pictured)? If you are okay with an NH35 movement the finish and bracelet are phenomenal for the price.
No, I haven’t. Thanks for the suggestion and feedback. I’ll give them a look!
What are you viewing things as? What matters to you?
Is it the design? The strap/bracelet? The weight? The movement? The specs? The history behind the brand?
I’ve got quite a few watches at the Sub-$1K price point and there’s different things i like about each one, for example, this is what I like about 3 of mine:
1 - Vostok Amphibia. I love the engineering of it. I love the Soviet/Russian approach to problem solving, while the Swiss divers of the time were putting chunky crown-guards on their dive watches to make sure that the crown and stem wouldn’t be damaged, they instead changed the crown so it had to be pulled to engage to do the same job with less material needed. I love the acrylic crystal specially designed to become more waterproof as the watch goes deeper. I love the history behind it, that it was a legit “space watch” (worn into space in Soyuz-17 for example).
2 - Swatch. I love the /fun/ behind Swatches. I love the retro charm of the 80s styled ones. No, they’re not going to win any awards for the best specs or best value of the money, but they’re fun to wear every now and then.
3 - Vintage Smiths. I love the history behind the brand and them beating Rolex to the top of Everest. Its fun to wear a watch made in England, once one of the horological capitals of the world and contributing some of the key enhancements of watches.
Price. Unless you’re referring to, or plotting on X/Y axes, spare the point. Do your part to stop the spread of this vocabular virus. Thank you, CVC. As you were…
Mostly quality-related aspects, such as bracelet quality, and movement type and accuracy. The few watches I do have are at the upper range $850+ and I do love them, but below that and for any of the main watch brands it’s just terrible and feels like you’re getting screwed.
Edit: I don’t hate Swatches, but I’ve had two die on me already and feel that even for their low cost, that shouldn’t happen within a short ownership timeframe
